Half as Old as Time

Just beyond the walls surrounding Fountains Abbey estate is a farm rented by a tenant farmer. It includes a small patch of land, untended and fenced off, because several trees got here first. They’re yew trees, and they’re thought to be about 1400 years old.

Think how long ago that was. It was only a couple of hundred years after the Romans had finally left these isles. It was several hundred years before the Norman invasion of 1066. By the time a group of monks from York had come to the site to build a Cistercian community here in 1132, those trees were already some 500 years old. This area would have been wooded, wild and interspersed with occasional farms. There would have been wolves, wild boar, lynx, otters, red and roe deer. But no rabbits. There’s no archaeological evidence for rabbit stew in any of the nation’s cooking pots from those days. They probably came with the Normans.

Those trees – once seven, now only two – would have been witness to the monastic community maturing: to the abbey and all its supporting buildings and industries developing. They would have seen the community grow, then all but collapse during the Black Death in 1248: and slowly prosper again. Until Henry VIII dissolved all the monastries, and Fountains Abbey’s roof was hauled down in 1539, leaving it pretty much the ruin it is today. By then, the trees were working towards being 1000 years old.

They’ve always been a bit out on a limb, these trees, and that’s what has made them such a rich habitat. They offer protection and nest sites for small birds, who can also eat their berries . Caterpillars feast on the leaves. These days, they’re home to eight species of bat, and a wide variety of owls. Yew trees are famously toxic to most animals – that’s why they’re fenced off – but badgers are able to eat the seeds, and deer the leaves.

A red deer stag grazing on leaves: not yew leaves this time.

I can’t show you any of the creatures for whom these trees are their neighbourhood – apart from a grazing deer at nearby Studley Royal. Just the ancient trees themselves, the nearby Fountains Hall, built in late Elizabethan times when they were already 1000 years old, and a slightly more distant view of Fountains Abbey itself. My featured photo, the last image I took in June, is of those yew trees, looking as though they’re ready for the next 1000 years.

Fountains Hall, as seen from the yew trees.
Fountains Abbey, as seen from the yew trees.

This is for Brian’s Last on the Card, and – somewhat tenuously – for this week’s Lens-Artist Challenge from Tina: Habitat.

The phrase ‘Half as old as time’ was actually coined by John William Burgon in 1845, in his poem ‘Petra’.

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Author: margaret21

I'm retired and live in North Yorkshire, where I walk , write, volunteer and travel as often as I can.

57 thoughts on “Half as Old as Time”

    1. Indeed. And apparently originally rabbits hail from the Iberian peninsula,though I’ve never met a rabbit in Spain. Several sources claim the Normans brought the rabbit over here.

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  2. They’re magnificent! I remember being awstruck by olive trees in the south of France reputed to be well over 1,000 years old but hadn’t realised that yews might have similar longevity.

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  3. Remarkable. To be able to stand under those remaining trees and feel the history would be a huge privilege, though of course I appreciate that they are fenced off and for good reason. Your words are a very close second. May they live on for many years to come.

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  6. Thanks for all the history and information. At least you had foxes to control rabbits. Now we’re pestered by both!
    Thanks for joining in 😀

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  15. This is amazing, Margaret. You showed us a beautiful world through your photos. Those trees are impressive to say the least.

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      1. I love them. About spam, I sometimes also find regular readers’ comments in my spam. I guess it’s just a WP glitch.

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  16. The trees are amazing Margaret, as is the history you shared and of course the habitat they provide for so many creatures. Beautiful photographs of these amazing specimens.

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  18. An interesting post. I am now wondering who it was that planted the yews. And did they know they were poisonous. Most yew trees are to be found in churchyards where they are ‘fenced’ off.

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  20. A wonderful post, Margaret! I thoroughly enjoyed every image and every word. Great take on the theme. I didn’t know they grew that old! Your way of fitting in history into the growing of the trees is a great thing. Maybe you should write a book about them? A children’s book with illustrations, telling history through them. Ah, now I am dreaming away…

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  21. 1000 years old… There must be many, many untold stories under and around these trees.

    Love the deer photo. The last one is beautiful, yes, they’re ready for the next 1000 years.

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  22. That is awesome and inspiring Margaret. I sometimes pass trees that I have known all my life and I am humbled. Now those damned rabbits…some misguided soul brought a pair out to Melbourne in the 19th century and in the blink of an eye they had populated the country! If only they weren’t so cute.

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    1. Ach, introduced species! Thay cause nothing but trouble. Himalayan Balsam is our bugbear here … and I saw my first parakeet ‘up north’ only the other day.

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